After the plan was still in the balance at the beginning of the week, it is now clear: the traffic light is really going through. This Wednesday morning, the cabinet passed the new Building Energy Act (GEG), which caused a lot of excitement as Habeck’s heating hammer.
In this mixed situation, it has not been finally clarified whether the coalition partners from the SPD, Greens and FDP are either constantly talking past each other or are constantly sharpening Habeck’s house without telling them in advance.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK), which is highly ambitious in every respect, headed by Robert Habeck (Greens) and his state secretaries Patrick Graichen (official state secretary, long-standing director of the Agora Energiewende), Sven Giegold (official state secretary, Attac co-founder) and Michael Kellner ( Parliamentary state secretary, former Greens federal manager) wants to completely decarbonize the clear cut and preferably heating in Germany. That means getting out of oil and gas – pronto.
According to reports, the BMWK is working under high pressure and sometimes through the night. Habeck’s tired eyes in the “Tagesthemen” are no coincidence. The work mania also bears fruit. In record time, the “Habeck Boys” turned the conservative house green. That’s quite an achievement. You have to know that the civil servants don’t really care who is the minister among them.
The Building Energy Act even tops the gas surcharge
But working a lot does not necessarily mean working well. This was the first thing you could see when the new building subsidy for the KfW Efficiency House 55 was suddenly stopped in January 2022, one week before it was announced to end. At the time, the new ministry leadership had been in office for just over a month.
Then, under the impression of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine with all its energy policy consequences, came the completely botched gas levy. And now the amendment of the GEG.
Rarely has a bill caused such a bad mood among the population, long before it was even passed by the cabinet and introduced into the Bundestag. The reason is simple: 75 percent of households in Germany heat with gas or oil. And if that is to change in a hurry, it will affect a great many people – house owners, apartment owners, but ultimately also tenants who will have to pay for it as well.
Switching to a heat pump, for example, where this makes sense and is possible at all, costs more than a new oil or gas heating system, significantly more. The funding pot is already full. He should feed himself from the fat 100 billion euro climate transformation fund. However, details, especially regarding the funding amount, are still completely unclear.
Absurd regulations in the GEG
It is clear that the new points in the GEG sometimes seem completely absurd. For example, over 80-year-olds should continue to be able to replace an old fossil-fuel heating system with a new fossil-fuel heating system. Who came up with this? Why 80? Is this a first hidden indication of when we will retire in the future?
The chimney sweep should then check this, which has caused a lot of displeasure in chimney sweep circles. “We are not the energy police,” criticized the head of the association, Julian Schwark, to FOCUS online. And further: “I imagine it would be very difficult to talk to customers about age.”
Do gas heaters have a future?
After all, since Habeck’s heating plans became known, the FDP seemed to have negotiated the roughest blocks, including in the ominous multi-day coalition committee with a break in the Netherlands. From 2024, every newly installed heating system should be operated with 65 percent renewable energy.
This at least opens up a future option for gas heaters – with hydrogen, which will probably only work in theory, or – more realistically – with biogas. Biogas is produced from biomass such as plant waste or manure.
But here the municipal suppliers, i.e. mainly the municipal utilities, recently reported considerable concerns. Ingbert Liebing, general manager of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU), said “Bild” that the regulations were “completely ignoring reality”.
Where is Scholz?
However, one hears surprisingly little about the matter itself from Scholz. Political leadership looks different – and is not only actually expected differently by the coalition partners.
On the other hand, with a view to the next federal elections in 2025, it can only be right for the Chancellor if Habeck and his confidants work with great verve to further scare away potential voters. This secures him a perspective of power beyond the legislative period.
When it comes to heating or heating, Germany should be inspired by Scandinavian countries like Finland, where this has worked primarily with incentives such as tax breaks within around 15 years. It would be particularly important that as many people as possible want to take part because they think it’s right and don’t suddenly get cold feet and, as is the case now, quickly buy oil and gas heaters in the sale.
Heating oil and gas are becoming even more expensive
For example, you could tell them very clearly right now that when CO2 certificate trading starts at European level in 2027, heating oil in particular, but also gas, will become more expensive and, despite the accompanying climate money, heating too. Therefore, from an economic point of view alone, it is wrong to put a new oil or gas heating system in your shopping cart at the last minute out of fear.
One thing is certain: If you want to protect the climate, you cannot ignore the building sector. According to the Federal Environment Agency, it is responsible for 35 percent of final energy consumption and around 30 percent of CO2 emissions in Germany. Above all, heating with oil and gas has an impact here. If Germany actually wants to become climate-neutral by 2045, as the grand coalition of the Union and the SPD has decided and cast in law, a change must inevitably take place here.
The only question is whether the crowbar method is the right approach.
